Tag: beeswax


RMS beauty: creamy pots of ultra-pure, organic color for cheeks, lips, and lids

May 4th, 2012 — 9:23pm

I remember when I first met NYC-based makeup artist, Rose Marie Swift, the brain and heart behind  RMS Beauty. It was at an intimate talk put on by the Environmental Working Group, geared towards makeup artists,  to educate us about their skin deep database (a site that rates cosmetics for safety based on their ingredients, and is truly wonderful, groundbreaking…and should be used as just one tool with which to determine the safety of the products you use).

I sat as close as I could to Rose Marie so I could hear everything she said. I was really impressed by all she added to the conversation, and by the really to-the-point, smart questions she asked. Of course I went home and read up on her online, and soon after, went to a party (I can’t remember if it was the launch of her line?) she hosted at which I got to play with all the fun little coconut-oil based, rich and creamy, densely pigmented pots of color. I was hooked, and since then, have turned many of my clients and my friends on to them.

RMS recently launched two new colors that I LOVE. The day I got them I used the gold on Christy Turlington’s eyes, and have been having fun experimenting with the truly unique and beautiful gray/dark brown/blackish cream eyeshadow pictured on the left. It’s great for a smudgy, unstructured smokey eye. I also love the purple and brown eyeshadows that have a great reflective quality. With all of these you can choose to use your finger or a brush to apply, and Rose Marie assures me – a serious germs-in-my-makeup-ophobe that due to the absence of water, and the coconut oil base, and with the presence of vitamin E and other essential oils, bacteria is unlikely to grow within the product. I still choose to use super clean fingers (and often a super clean brush) for application, but I see others using fingers straight into the container.

I’ve been wearing RMS cheek colors in modest and smile for quite some time and I love them. A creamy cheek color or highlighter on a well-moisturized face is my favorite look. I’m not big on glitter, and I’ve not been disappointed by any of these shades, as even the shimmery ones have small enough particles of what makes them shimmer, that you really don’t see them, you just see a luminous effect.

One last thing: I’m always a fan of a cream cheek and eye. Cream products are easy to apply and kind of fool-proof if you blend well (remember: no hard edges!). Plus they allow healthy skin to continue to glow. It’s my go-to for women of color, in particular, as I’m often disappointed by powder products that can look chalky and not as intensely pigmented as they do in the package, once applied to dark skin tones.

The only drawback to cream products that I’ve found is that on most people, the color will fade more quickly than you may like. I’ve found this to be very true for pretty much all cream cosmetics that go the natural ingredient route. The good thing about RMS Beauty is that it’s actually super good for your skin, so reapplying during the day adds hydration and glow to your face and will never look cakey or dry.

RMS beauty just launched on QVC. I’m so happy for Rose Marie for all of her success. She’s a clearinghouse of knowledge about all things in the ‘green’ beauty world. I’m anxiously awaiting a new lip color that’s in the works. It’s super good.

 

WHAT’S IN THOSE LITTLE POTS?
Minerals that make the color, the best organic coconut oil, organic cocoa butter, organic shea butter, organic bees wax, organic jojoba oil, organic castor seed oil, organic argan oil, sunflower oil, propolis, non-GMO vitamin E, organic rosemary extract, Centella, organic vanilla

Checkout her faq section and scroll down to the question about preservatives to educate yourself about the options she uses, and how and where to store your RMS for best results. While you’re on her site, spend some time reading everything she’s written – it’s all really informative.

 

WHY GLASS CONTAINERS?
They’re fully recyclable and it’s important to RMS to avoid plastic packaging which she says has been shown to leach into the products they encase.

 

WILL THEY MAKE ME BREAK OUT?
It’s not likely, but those of us with super sensitive skin never know about these things. I have incredibly sensitive, acne prone skin, as do so many of my clients, and I’ve never had a breakout from an RMS cheek or eye color, nor have I heard from any of my friends or clients that they have. It’s generally synthetic oils that make faces break out, and luckily this product contains organic virgin coconut oil that has antibacterial properties to protect skin, jojoba oil that’s most like skin’s natural oil, and the organic argan oil and cocoa butter are unlikely to cause an outbreak. That’s saying a lot.

 

note: the candle is just a cute addition to the photo, and not a part of RMS Beauty packaging. I figured you knew that, but thought I should include a disclaimer, just in case.

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Honey Cappings? Yes Please!

February 21st, 2012 — 9:00pm

Why am I including a post about honey in a beauty blog? I can remember my mom always serving challah bread and honey on the Jewish New Year, to symbolically sweeten the 12 months ahead, and she shared with me one of her favorite house warming gifts: bringing a pretty jar of honey to suggest the idea of ‘sweet things to come’ to a friends’ new home.

This being my fourth post on my brand new blog, I thought it was only fitting that I share something honey related with you to sweeten all that’s to come.

On a trip to a really cool store called Live Live in the East Village here in NYC, my friend Liz and I discovered a whole line of jarred honey-infused products called Bee Yummy. In addition to a number of incredible skin treatment products from the line, I left the store with a container of some really weird looking waxy stuff sitting atop of some really beautiful golden honey.

The very knowledgeable  guy working there told me that the weird looking waxy stuff was called honey cappings, and that it’s the part of the honey harvest that bee keepers usually keep for themselves, given its’ amazing health benefits and many uses. Luckily, he told me, they were able to find a bee keeper who was willing to sell it once a year during the months of May and June.

So what are honey cappings? I think most of us know that bees build honeycomb with beeswax, and then fill the cells of the comb with honey. Once they’ve reduced the moisture content to around 18%, (really? how do they know?) they cover the cells with wax (the cappings) in order to prevent atmospheric moisture from diluting the honey. AMAZING. I read on line that essentially honey cappings could be used to mummify a body, keeping skin in tact for centuries, which is why using skin treatments made with honey is such a good idea.

Liz and I excitedly went back to my apartment to taste the honey cappings and feel the magical effects for ourselves. We’d been told that some people spread it on hot toast, whereby the wax melts just like butter along with the honey. We decided to forego the bread and just scrape the cappings onto our spoons.

We learned that by themselves, we didn’t much like the taste or texture of the cappings. It’s a little like chewing gum, but with the texture of wax, and with next to no taste when eaten alone.

After Liz left I decided to try a spoonful of honey mixed with some of the cappings and found it to be a world better, and in fact, I’ve eaten some every day since.

Here’s why:

  1. Some people say it’s good for hay fever since it contains pollen, essentially building up your immune system by feeding you little doses of what you may be allergic to.
  2. It contains small amounts of numerous vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antioxidants including: niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, and zinc. (Just as the color of honey varies, so does the content of the of the benefits listed above.)
  3. It has antimicrobial properties and speeds healing.
Sweet!

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